Mini Reviews (X)

Mini reviews of non-vampire books I have read lately!

Last Chance - Sarah Dessen
Never in one place long enough to make friends or put down roots, Colie doesn't expect her trip to the North Carolina coast to change a thing. Always the outcast, she's resigned to a holiday with only her eccentric aunt Mira for company. But when she finds a job waitressing at the Last Chance cafe, she also finds acceptance, new friends, and the beginnings of romance...

Last Chance is, like all of Sarah Dessen's novels, the story about a young girl with a few problems, who makes new friends, grows as a person and gets better self esteem when she at least expects it.

In this book, the girl was Colie. She used to be very fat, but is now thin. Her self esteem however, is as bad as ever. She also used to move around a lot, and therefor saw no reason to get to know people and make new friends. But when she is sent to spend the summer with her aunt Mira, everything changes...

Last Chance was a sweet and easy read. Even if I have read dozens of books like this one before, I still enjoyed Colie's story. Last Chance is a good read, but not my favourite Dessen book!

Rating: 4 of 5

Shadowed Summer - Saundra Mitchell
Iris is ready for another hot, routine summer in her small Louisiana town, hanging around the Red Stripe grocery with her best friend, Collette, and traipsing through the cemetery telling each other spooky stories and pretending to cast spells. Except this summer, Iris doesn’t have to make up a story. This summer, one falls right in her lap.

Years ago, before Iris was born, a local boy named Elijah Landry disappeared. All that remained of him were whispers and hushed gossip in the church pews. Until this summer. A ghost begins to haunt Iris, and she’s certain it’s the ghost of Elijah. What really happened to him? And why, of all people, has he chosen Iris to come back to?

I loved that Iris the 14-year-old main character in Shadowed Summer was allowed to act like a child! Often in literature, young girls are obsessing about boys and make-up, but not Iris, she played make-believe with her friend, came up with home-made spells etc.

Shadowed Summer had just the right amount of spookiness and chilling mystery, mixed with a story about relationships and growing up.

Rating: 3 of 5


You - Charles Benoit
This wasn't the way it was supposed to go.
You're just a typical fifteen-year-old sophomore, an average guy named Kyle Chase. This can't be happening to you. But then, how do you explain all the blood? How do you explain how you got here in the first place?
There had to have been signs, had to have been some clues it was coming. Did you miss them, or ignore them?
Maybe if you can figure out where it all went wrong, you can still make it right. Or is it already too late?
Think fast, Kyle. Time's running out. How did this happen?

You isn't your normal YA novel. You is raw, realistic and shocking. You is written in second person (thereof the title), and while you're reading you almost feel like you walk around in Kyle's shoes. Or I would have felt that - if I hadn't been so much unlike Kyle! Kyle isn't popular, he isn't smart and - he doesn't care. He's a loner, he gets into trouble and he makes trouble. He is far from your typical YA character! That what's makes this story so interesting, to see high school, and life, from a completely different point of view! But, I think I would have liked this book more if I could have related better to Kyle's actions and thoughts...

The ending was confusing to me, I think I have a clue about what happened to Kyle, but I'm not sure... so if anyone else have read this book, please e-mail me and explain the ending! haha

Rating: 3 of 5